Thread: What are the effects of power steering fluid in our cars?

The car I bought (98 sentra se) had a leak in one of the ps lines but it was fixed before I bought the car I believe there is power steering fluid in there, but I'm not sure, when I accelerate and go over 5500rpms I hear a whining type sound from the passenger motor area, is that from not having transmission fluid in there?
Also when I'm sitting still and turn the wheel I can hear a wierd noise but can't tell if its from the pump or not

should I drain it out and refill or has the damage been done to the pump?

If it was me Id take all that power steerign shit out! Our tires arent big enough for it to even be tough to turn the car. Ive been without for about three years now. Its only hard to turn when your stopped.

aka parallel parking would suck!!!

I agree with wangwang, it's not worth the money to fix all those leaky lines. When mine finally starts spewing again, its gone for good.

Its not leaking now the previous owner fixed it before I bought it, and id rather not deal with not having power steering because I drive heavy machinery and trackmobiles without power steering at work and it sucks,

my main question was ; will having powersteering fluid in there hurt anything, vs having the trans fluid that the car calls for?

YES, it will make it leak like crazy! Thats why most of our cars leak, they have had powersteering fluid in the system and it eats up the hoses and seals

Mike, I fill up my power steering with clear, synthetic power steering fluid ("designed for Hondas"). I have no leaking, and the system works just fine. You sound like you're possibly low on fluid. Just make sure your fluid levels are good. If you want to be extra careful, you could drain the fluid and use what the FSM suggests to fill it back up.

(I've never had any issues with using power steering fluid versus ATF.)

At least PS fluid is similr to tranny fluid like it calls for.
I bought a nx once that had motor oil in the powersteering...dumbass said thats all he had so he tought it wouldnt hurt.
I flushed it ,and filled it and drove it 3 times before I had to replace the pump.Fortunately the rack survived.
Jack the front of the car up so you can turn the wheels side to side.
I used a turkey baster to suck out as much fluid out of the reservoir as possible.Then disconnect the return line on the rack .You can turn from lock to lock repeatedly to push out the old fluid that way.Be sure to keep adding to the res.as it gets low,so the pump dont suck air.
I did that until I saw fresh fluid.
I drove it a couple days and did it again to make sure.The PS pump still made a buch of noise,but after replacing it the car went many more miles without a problem.

Good luck,it no fun,but better than replacing the rack.

So what kind of fluid did you use J?

^^^ATF
I just bought the cheap advance brand big 32oz.bottles to flush it.
Then filled with valvoline highmileage ATF for the final fillup.(Not that theres anything wrong with the advance stuff,just wanted to run something else)